16.1. General information about NFS

Today, NFS is used only to share files among Linux and UNIX boxes. Windows clients should use CIFS/Samba for file service. See page 828 for more information about Samba and CIFS.

NFS consists of several components, including a mounting protocol and mount server, daemons that coordinate basic file service, and several diagnostic utilities. A portion of both the server-side and client-side software resides in the kernel. However, these parts of NFS need no configuration and are largely transparent from an administrator’s point of view.

NFS protocol versions

The NFS protocol has been remarkably stable over time. The original public release of NFS was version 2. In the early 1990s, a collection of ...

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